Posts tagged english

So we are on our second week of five at Santa Cruz Island in Galapagos. Even though we are working at Darwin Animal Doctors 7.5 h per day we still find the time to look around the island and find all kinds of amazing animals. On the weekends we will travel around to different islands, we have already planned going to Isabela, San Cristobal, North Seymour and Pinzon, so we’re hoping to get a new video up every week.

The wifi here is far from the best, though. We tried to upload this one on Sunday evening by going to a restaurant and borrow their internet but even though we sat there an hour we only got it to 5%. Therefore, the next day we went to a new opened coffee shop were we thought they would have better internet connection.12%… Eventually we just had to give up and use our own wifi which meant we could only upload it at night because it would swallow the internet for everyone here at the clinic. Two nights later we finally succeed!

So take it with a pinch of salt, we had to edit it with Windows Movie Maker and improvise an ending. We promise to improve in the next one!

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Titel: The Perks of Being a WallflowerAuthor: Stephen ChboskyPublished: 1999Genre: DramaGrade: 10/10

Summary: It’s about an introverted boy named Charlie who in a couple of letters addressed to an anonymous friend explains about his life as a freshman in high school. From being an unpopular boy with no friends he learns how to “participate” and get to know Sam and Patrick (also called nothing).
It’s really hard to describe the book interestedly but without giving out the plot twists but through the year you learn a lot about his thinking and at the end he slowly remember the truth about his aunt Helen.

Writers style: I read the book in English because personally I think a book is the best not translated. It’s written in letter-form because he is writing to another person (you will never find out who) which is a form I absolutely don’t like. I prefer to see the story through others eyes and I think is harder to get into the story through letters and diaries. It makes the story jump a bit, leaving out a full version to follow. You don’t mention for someone when you’re telling a story that you walked through the dark corridor, full of drunk people who laughed and yelled stuff like “I AM SO DRUNK” and that you hurried up the reach the doorknob to get some quietness only to find your boyfriend sleeping with someone.
No.
You just say that you found your boyfriend sleeping with someone when you were on this party.

Own opinion: It’s still good though because instead of all this describing of the environment you get a lot of feelings, some you have to think about yourself to understand why he feels that way and you get a different perspective. I thought Charlie felt kind of “special” in the begining of the book. He had weird thoughts that I didn’t really follow and he saw everything in another way. He really was a well trained wallflower. As the book went on I learned about the way he saw things and I can admit that he’s not the best on the side of social life but he isn’t stupid eaither. Because of earlier events in his life he just found it harder to adapt. I loved how he, through Sam and Patrick, got to know a bunch of other people and loved everyone for who they was and not for who they were. The end (spoiler alert) twisted everything Charlie had learned and I thought it was important to know that participate doesn’t always mean being there, but also to act by yourself.

I can relate very well to Charlie’s life because I been there myself whereyou felt bad and lonely most of the times and realized that you just have to grab on to you life again and start “participating” as Charlie mentions it. I bet many people been at that state sometime in their lives. I really started to reflect over my own life and identity.

Though because I have seen the movie I miss some kind of feeling in I that didn’t receive from the book. Although I love all the songs you get, the books Charlie’s teacher gives him and not least the poem! After I borrowed it from the library and couldn’t put it down and it will definitely be placed on the list of my favorite books.

Everyone should read it or at least see the movie (which I saw first but wanted to understand the whole story). It is to good to miss out 🙂

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Finally!
I wanted to show all the pictures I took in Japan but I can’t of course (how badly I ever want to) because 500 pictures just won’t fit on the site. Therefore I’ve tried to do some collages to show off the best stuff in one picture.The pictures are a little bit messy, everyone ain’t from the exacly same place and time. I mixed them for more effect and variarity.
Anyway, we “climbed” a mountain (with ropeway) to get a view of Mt. Fuji. Yes, we were too lazy to climb the actuall mountain, let us! We had walked two days before in rain to visit a cave and the Premium Outlet so we were kind of tired and sore and an easy trip was nice. The mounain has this kind of story that I told about before. About a racoon who kills the rabbits friends wife and as revenge the rabbit put the racoon on fire and made him run all way down to the water were the rabbit made him drown. Nice little story, huh?

We saw Tokyo from both top and below, their high buildings are really cool! Walking around in the crazy heat in Tokyo we visit every big shopping center we could find. Their aircondition was very welcoming and it was fun to find stuff to good prices. If you are a tourist, you have to tour. We walked to different temples in Kyoto and we even found scouts from other parts of the world.

Problably the most important part. The Jamboreen camp! We went on different activities each day like Science where we got to drive a solar panel driven car, Culture where we got to try typical things from different countries, go to the beach at the water activity, visit Hiroshima and hear about the tragedy at the peace program and much more! Beside that we got to visit other camps and meet people all around the world! It was really something never to forget. All these expressions from everywhere you could think of, not only Japan! Now afterwards I can tell I was right about that I wouldn’t miss a single thing. Sounds strange but everything that happened is a part of the adventure and experience.
I hope I get to go on the next Jamboreen in USA, 2019!

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I LOVE the sound of the piano and to top it with a cello makes it even better. Therefor I can’t let these guys go unattended! The way they remake songs, combining and presenting makes me love them. There are many good covers and videos but I think this is the most interesting one.

The way they got an idea to combine the song “Don’t you worry child” of Swedish House Maffia with an indian-style preformed by Shweta Subram makes it stick out from everything else. The work and effort they put into getting good videos is amazing. They pulled togheter a working team to drag a big piano out in the dessert to put even more charisma into the music and also took alot of remakes during the burning sunshine. The music itself is lively, creative and the hindi lyrics that in fact contains some hindi prayers creates a different kind of connotation.

Please take time to check out some more of their music on Youtube, Spotify or their webbsite http://thepianoguys.com/videos/ where you also can find out more behind the scenes.

I wake up at 07.00 am and feel that I slept a little bit too long. The tent is heated up and I can feel the sweat on my forehead slowly trying to reach the ground. As quick as possible I decide what to wear and throw myself out of the tent. The sun rised a long time ago and it’s already around 30 degrees. The breakfast is ready, today it’s hot dogs and cornflakes. I see the people around me gather their stuff in their yellow bags to get ready for the daily activity. The theme Nature is on the schedule today. I decide not to go though, I don’t feel too well and how fun hiking on a road in burning sunshine ever sounds I rather pass. Instead we go to The Plaza to visit the scoutshop and eat a better meal than the ordinary lunch with bread, bread and more bread. I am actually reeeally tired of this bread!

As we walking around deciding what to eat a group of Japanese greet us and want to take a photo of us. It’s easy to feel welcome on the Jamboreen camp and the residents are very nice and curious about their guests. Two little girls even asks me about my autograph. So kawaii!

We check out the inside of the building were you can walk around and try a various kind of the Japanese culture. There’s Kendamas (a ball on a thread to throw in a cup), swordfighting, quizzes and a lot more. After a while I have to head back to our camp. It’s my patrols turn the get the food and prepare the dinner. We get the food bags and goes to the hub where we have to wait in line to get the ingredients we need. According to the cookbook it’s pasta and meat with some kind of sauce which sounds nice.

After the dinner we usually split up in smaller groups to visit other scouts from different countries. The Britain’s seems to be a favorite. It’s very interesting to hear about eachother culture and county which seems the same in the beginning but has a lot of variety. Sometimes there’s also activity in the hub with different games or preformence.

The Jamboreen it’s heading to its end. It’s only 2 days left and even if I miss my family and home I still don’t quite want to leave this place. By now I’m used to the heat (even if it’s still too hot), used to stand in line to shower, to sit on the bad-smelling toilets and to always drink plenty of water. It’s going to be weird getting back to the old food, to have everything, beside at least 30 other people, close and it’s weird to being able to read again.

I am enjoying every last day and countig down ’til the minute It’s time to go home and knows that I’m going to miss everything on the Jamboreen camp.

In the morning and evening it’s around 28-32 degrees celsius but on the middle on the day it’s around +40 degrees! Not weird how we can hear the ambulance driving from camp to camp, especially when 2000 of all the 34.000 scouts here are Swedes who really not are used to so much heat. All we can do is to stay hydrated and in the shadows.

But anyway, it’s a beautiful place. The second day here we got a big welcome opening with acrobatic airplains and drumsolos. It was spectacular! All the 153 countries showed off their flag on the stage, one and one. It took some time but it worth it. We have this seven subjects which we are suppose to do during the camp as a whole or a half day activity. We had science, water and GV (how to improve the world) this far.

The food here is interesting. Sometimes it’s a little bit too fat for me. We all miss the Swedish food. When we ask eachother the typical question “what’s the first thing you will do when you get home” the answers, beside the typical TSBI (toilet, shower, bed and internet), often starts with eat something.

I miss porridge, fruits (which is expensive and hard to come by in the stores here), pizza, a cold Marabou and “knäckebröd” with “Kalles Kaviar”. Of course also my family, rats and the cold swedish summer weather. I’m wondering why I ever complained on it.

It’s nice to meet all this people from all the places in the world but the weather is destroying a bit of the experience. You never have enough power to move around in the camp and at the evening it’s pitch black and still kind of too hot but at least we’re more use to it now then before. Today we had a international food festival where we got to wander around the camps and taste exotic food from different countries. Some were really nice and some was not! I actually keept my distant from the Japanese food. Already got to much of it. Though I have now tasted Scottish Haggis! Which I think was really cool and actually kind of good! In our camp we let people taste liqrouits from Sweden and “fattiga riddare”. We also handed out “Kalles kaviar” tattoos.

I could write soo much more but that will be it for now. Sorry about the bad english but it is so hot that I don’t even care. I hope you in Sweden have a nice cool weather because believe me, you don’t want +40 humidity!

In 4 h I’m leaving the country for a month to be at the international Jamboreen camp in Japan. I’m both exited and nervous because I’m not used to travel but I sense it’s going be an adventure in its own kind. We’re going to live in hotel half of the trip and at the camp the other half. We’re going to visit everything we can and learn about Japan and it’s culture. And more ofc. The time differences is about 6h so I’m counting with a lot of jet lag.

The point is, I’m gonna try to post things while I’m in Japan but we probably won’t have so good internet connection and the days will be occupied with all these activities. Keep up following tho and I’ll do my best to show of Tokyos streets.

So around summer, when I have all this extra time, I’m going to try to update the site in different ways. This means a lot of changes and sometimes a little bit of trouble, but I’m going to make it work as well as possible.

Today I’ve created a logo for the blog. Observe that it might change over the time, but right now, I’m proudly presenting:

Mli’s coffee logo, prototype #1!

I thought it was fun to have my name on a cup of coffee so that’s why I picked this kind of shape (and of course because I love coffee). Like you can see it says Mli H on it which is my first name and the first letter of my last name acting as a handle. It’s hot (because that’s me, wink wink) and it’s digitally drawn by me via photoshop which makes it more personal.

I hope you like it and I hope you don’t get in too much trouble of my changes 😉

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Yesterday I went on a lecture by Jane Goodall a british ethologist, primatologist, anthropologist and the creator of Jane Godall institute. She is famous for her books and of course her studies of chimpanzees and conservation work of nature and animal welfare.

We also got a lecture of Mattias Klum, a famous and wonderful photographer for National Geographic who showed his work and together with Johan Rockström talked about the environment and how we are going down. Together they talked about the organisation Roots & Shoots (also of Jane Goodall), how they’re working and also what we can do to help the nature.
The whole lecture about their life and work was very inspiring and amazing to listen to. I’m really glad I sign up to come.

Me and my friends went to grab a snack on Pizza Hut later. Very cozy and expensive, so the McDonalds got to stand for the dessert. It’s been a nice evening and even if it was a little bit chilly, I was in nice company and I really had a great time. :3

I always have to do something productive or fun. I hate these blank spaces in my calendar who calls for an empty day. Either I have to reach a friend or, if I’m to tired for that, doing something on my own at least until the evening, otherwise I will feel terrble.I’m not that kind of person who sits in the sofa with my family when I’m home.

A perfect day for me is to come home around six and then maybe clean up a little in my room, surf around on my computer and do some of my homework. To have a planed up day and then relax before bed. A whole day at home (even if I’m out an hour or so) is horrible and that’s also why I can’t enjoy the days when you ain’t healthy enough to go to school but you are still lively and alert.

It’s about to always have to keep moving and living for the day. To create memories and make changes in my life, even if they’re small. I don’t know. Just evolve by different interactions with different people in different situations I guess. It can be both a blessing and a curse because things are always happening which keeps my life interesting but some weeks I plan in too much which creates a stressful mess. But I’m grateful for every day I get and everyone I’m surrounded by. Thanks for that! 🙂

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We are always on the run, yet we don’t move. We are always meeting new people, yet we don’t talk. We are always passing new destinations, yet we don’t stop to explore.We are born with curiosity, yetwe never get off the train.

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Like a flower in a meadow you’re growing strong. Through dark clouds and rain, through loss and sorrow, When everything you love, seems to go wrong,you stand with your roots in the ground and live for tomorrow.

Though the raindrops fill your body and weigh down your leavesYou patiently wait for the earth to get dryerAnd though everything is dark you never give up your beliefsthat the sun will come back, and you will rise even higher.